Saturday, January 12, 2013

Well, my boys and I have been in Virginia for almost 3 weeks now. With the holidays over, we’re trying to get into a routine for ourselves and my extended family. One of our biggest hurdles we’re working on are meals.

My parents are gone before we wake up during the work week so they don’t eat breakfast at home.
My boys, they are now on different school schedules where they used to wake up at the same time, ride the same bus together, at the same time and come home together on the same bus at the same time. Now, Buddy gets up at 6:30a to catch the bus about half an hour later. Doodle gets up an hour later and doesn't start school until 9a!

That means they aren’t eating breakfast together anymore. Thankfully, that’s the only meal change the boys have had. We still eat dinner around the same time we used to back in Minnesota. This is very strange to my parents who typically don’t get home until 7:30-8 at the earliest. Just in time for Doodle to be going to bed. We, of course, have had dinner by that time.

I was so happy that we were all going to be around Saturday morning for breakfast. It was going to be our first non-holiday meal together. I wanted to keep it simple because I’ve made a couple of big meals and they aren’t quite used to homemade food. lol

I love bacon and sausage. If you look at my Pinterest page, you’ll see that Bacon is one of my Boards. Unfortunately, no bacon this morning. Instead, I made scrambled eggs two different ways: one WITH Jennie-Osausage and one without. I wasn’t sure how everyone was going to like eating it. I also decided, with the aid of a little helper, to have a few sausage patties.

My parents haven’t been part of my blogging world like my friends and kids have so this is an entirely new experience for them. lol My dad was awesome. He said, “So I’m going to be on some blog? I protest!” He may have mentioned something along the lines of suing me. I don’t exactly remember because I just tuned him out.

We were all pretty hungry by the time was breakfast was made. I think we’re all used to eating on the run or in short spurts that waiting for a meal to be made in the morning is new to us. What I loved about it though was that we all hung around the kitchen talking. All of us. I can’t tell you how happy I was.

When everything was ready (go figure it was pretty much all at the same time for a change) we all sat around the table and dug in. Now, dad had a golf game to go to so he took a bowl of cereal, big fat cheater! Buddy convinced me that on occasional Saturdays I allow him to have a donut, so he asked for that today. The only thing he requested to eat from my cooked breakfast…the sausage patties, of course. He nearly ate all of them!

Dad…oh, he decided to be Mr. Helpful as you can tell…

So in protest to his protest, this is what he gets…

Take that old man! Your blogging daughter gets the last laugh!

Our usual breakfast is either cereal or (gulp) a pop tart. Ok, –> I <—don’t eat the pop tart, the boys will on occasion, but we all know that it’s not a nutritional breakfast that will help them through the school day until lunch. I know, it makes me cringe too thinking about it. I want my boys to succeed and knowing that they could eat healthier with just a few more minutes of my time in the morning, it makes me want to make a change…for their sakes!

Weekends are just a start. We need to make sure that during the school/work week that they’re getting a breakfast that will see them through to lunch. Especially if their hard classes are in the morning. We just need to figure out a system that’s going to work for us. Being on the East Coast, we’re an hour ahead and now with Buddy’s schedule we’re getting up half an hour earlier than THAT!

But you know what? It’s totally worth it. My boys eating a healthy meal is a good thing! With my new job, I need to eat healthy as well since I’m working from home!

Just a heads up, btw, if you plan on incorporating some Jennie-O Turkey Sausage into your meals, be sure to look for it in the frozen food section. I know each store is different, but I found them in a couple stores next to the other Jennie-O frozen products, so I’d start my search there! =)

And while I’m talking about how I’d like to serve my kids better, especially with their morning breakfast, I wanted to share about Champion For Kids. Here’s their Mission Statement:

This month, their Simple Service project is Give Breakfast A Wake-Up Call! As a single mom, who has kids that receive free meals at school, I know that this is a huge need for many families. I’m extremely grateful that there’s a program available to families, such as myself, to help keep my kids eating nutritional meals.

I don’t ask for handouts or rely on the government for much. As a single mom who’s trying to get back on her feet, I need some help during the interim. I don’t like it, but my kids need me to put my pride aside and make sure they’re taken care of. Yes, they can eat nutritious meals at home and I try to provide that as much as possible, but sometimes the schools will offer my boys better options. It’s just the way it is.

I’m extremely thankful that Champions for Kids is doing what it can to raise up people to serve those children in the community around them! If you’ve been looking for a way for you, and your whole family to get involved, I would ask that you check out some of their ideas and then share what you did with them. They’d love to hear about it!

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® and Jennie-O #cbias #SocialFabric. All opinions are my own.

We rarely eat breakfast together, even though we all leave at the same time. My daughter made a point of telling me that our neighbors, with whom they stayed while I was up north last week, have a big breakfast EVERY morning... the husband does it.. well, Sweet Pea, maybe if we had a man in the house, but this Mama ain't cooking breakfast too!

Ha, your dads funny! What lil do my parents know, they find their way into my blog every now and then. It must be hard changing routines. Your breakfast looked so yummy...makes me want to go have some sausage patties! :D